If You Like Osama

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Why Don’t Rushpubliscums Respect Our Military Leaders?

Hasn’t the Rushpubliscum cry always been that they “listen to the commanders” whenever anything military comes up? Isn’t it supposed to be the dems that are deaf to the wishes of our military leaders?

And yet….. these Rushpubliscums, who love and respect our military leaders so much, simply dismiss them when they say something that runs counter to Ruhpubliscum dogma.

I guess that the military isn’t good for much besides photo-ops after all, at least to the Rushpubliscums. Dog knows that most of them have done everything they could think of to avoid actually SERVING. Come to think of it… maybe it isn’t hard to understand why the Rushpubliscums wouldn’t have much use for military commanders. We tend to understand things better when we’ve actually been a part of them.

John Kerry, who is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, was belittled and vilified by these “patriotic” Rushpubliscums a long time before they started vilifying STILL SITTING military people, so Kerry knows a little bit about the Rushpubliscum mentality when it comes to servicepeople. He took the time to lay it out for us.

“Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates are both political appointees. They’re going to be biased. They’re going to say what the administration wants them to say.” – U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr.

Stunning. That was my reaction when I listened to a freshman Republican Congressman rebut the principled position of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, that the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” needed to end and that gay members of the Armed Services should be able to serve their country without fear that just being who they are would end their service.

It was especially alarming to hear the judgment of Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates dismissed so easily as ‘biased.’

Anyone who knows Admiral Mullen or Bob Gates knows damn well that neither of them say what any Administration just wants them to say.

This is, after all, Secretary Bob Gates – a lifelong Republican who was appointed to positions of high trust and leadership by President Ronald Reagan, President George Herbert Walker Bush, and President George W Bush. This is a Defense Secretary who planned to leave government and had to be talked into continuing to serve in a Democratic Administration. He is doing his duty today out of patriotism, not political ambition or partisanship.

And this is, after all, the same Admiral Mullen who was appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President George W Bush. A four star Admiral who has spent 42 years wearing the uniform of his country. He’s tough. He’s independent. He speaks his mind, and he speaks the truth. Indeed, at Tuesday’s hearing, when Republicans members of the Senate Armed Services Committee accused him of “undue command influence” and of obeying “directives” from President Obama, Admiral Mullen responded in just the way you would expect a man of his caliber. “This is not about command influence,” he said. “This is about leadership, and I take that very seriously.”

But let’s test what Congressman Hunter said. Does the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs just automatically sing from the same playbook as the Administration? Ironically, the last time a Democratic President tried to lift the ban on gays on the military, the Chairman of the JCS, who happened to be a Republican appointed by his Republican predecessor, broke with the President and opposed gays serving openly. His name was General Colin Powell. The Republicans back then didn’t think to question the impartiality of that political appointee.

Of course, today, General Powell has changed his position – read the story here -
and he stands with Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates .

This is not 1993. We have come a long way as a country, and we have come a long way as a military to arrive at this moment when I believe our men and women in uniform agree with the Commander in Chief and with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military is, as Admiral Mullen put it, “the right thing to do.”

This has been a rocky journey. In 1993, I testified in front of Senator Strom Thurmond’s Armed Services Committee in favor of lifting the ban. I said then and I believe even more fervently now that, “when it comes to defending our country, we cannot afford to waste the bravery and service of a single American. This is a time to find public servants, not public scapegoats.”

And it hasn’t always been Democrats making the case.

Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a conservative Republican icon, once argued: “You don’t have to be straight in the military, you just have to be able to shoot straight.” Not long after he retired from the Senate in 1987, he tried to warn his fellow Republicans that “eventually the ban will be lifted” and the sooner the better. Rep. Duncan Hunter may claim that he never served with anyone in the military who was openly gay, but he’d do well to read what Senator Goldwater once rightly observed, “Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar. They’ll still be serving long after we’re all dead and buried. That should not surprise anyone.”

Anyone who believes otherwise should again study Admiral Mullen’s testimony about a policy which “forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend this country.”

Senator John McCain, who replaced Barry Goldwater in the Senate, certainly understood the opposition to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. In 2006, as he was preparing for his successful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, McCain told an audience at Iowa State University that “the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to.”

Today, not just John McCain, but everyone in positions of public responsibility should understand that the moment is now – the leadership of our military are joining the Commander in Chief in saying, the time for change has come.

Indeed, it has.

One of the best soldiers I ever served alongside was gay. I knew gay and lesbian soldiers at almost every post I ever went to. They, for the most part, conducted themselves honorably while in uniform, and much less noisily than I did off-hours. This notion that somehow “cohesion” is going to be affected by gay people serving is known by damn near all of us who actually have served to be utter, complete bullshit.

But the Rushpubliscums, as always, have no problem throwing honorable men and women-up to and including the top brass-under a bus if they can score a few points with their hateful, racist, bigoted “base.” Classy, guys. Real fucking classy.

Crossposted at Reconstitution 2.0

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Jesusistanis Would Censor a Wet Dream

The Jesusistanis have gone further off the deep end than I thought possible now.

I ignored the story about the Jesusistanis banning dictionaries in California because they had an entry for “oral sex.,” because that was more or less what I’d expect-no surprises.

But this….. I am stunned by this.

I read the supposedly offensive passages myself, and I don’t remember feeling anything but bad about how the girl never got to experience  sex, or love, or life. And I know that if you’ve read the diary, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Who, in their wildest imagination, could imagine anything pornographic about these innocent writings of a girl who was never to be?

Why, the Jesusistanis, of course. I’m past disgusted this time.

Anne Frank’s adolescent curiosity about sexuality is too much for a Virginia school district that has pulled the complete version of the young Jewish girl’s diary off its curriculum and off its shelves over a parent’s complaint about sexually explicit passages.

Culpeper County Public Schools has pulled Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition off the shelves because parents complained “over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition,” reports the Culpeper, Virginia, Star-Exponent.

The complaint has to do specifically with an expanded version of the diary published in 1995. Frank’s father, Otto, had excised large parts of his daughter’s diary prior to publication in the late 1940s. Anne was killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp in March, 1945. Her diary has made her arguably the most famous Holocaust victim.

According to Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post, the offending passage is a description of female genitalia:

There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can’t imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!

The decision to pull the book appears to have been made quickly, last November, on the basis of one complaint from a parent. The Star-Exponent reports:

Citing a parent’s concern over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition, Allen said school officials immediately chose to pull this version and use an alternative copy.

“What we have asked is that this particular edition will not be taught,” Allen said from his office Wednesday morning.

“I’m happy when parents get involved with these things because it lets me know that they are really looking and have their kids’ best interest (in mind). And that’s where good parenting and good teaching comes in.”

If that’s what you consider to be “good parenting,” brother, I am quite happy to be a lousy dad. It is hard to imagine a post that is less offensive.

I wish Anne was here, because I’d like to show her the pinheads that bitched about this. She’d at last understand how such heads could pass through such small holes.

Crossposted at Reconstitution 2.0

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God don’t like ugly…

I just watched an ABC News segment on Haiti.

Update – here is a link to the segment.

A bilingual reporter flew in with an aide organization and then toured several neighborhoods and talked to Haitians who are sleeping out in the streets because their homes have been destroyed.

The neighborhood was very quiet despite the masses of people…no babies crying or people moaning, no angry shouts or desperate pleas. And the people that the reporter spoke with had a look in their eyes…shock and pain and fear…and something else – hope.

As the segment came to an end, the reporter having spoken to several people with injuries who were unable to find medical care, a spontaneous worship broke out…women raised their arms to the sky and swayed to a rhythm that comes from within.

Back and forth, they shifted their weight together and sang a song of praise.

Even those who were unable to stand joined in…the camera capturing it all as the segment ended and the reporter noted that people who have lost everything have not lost their faith.

And I couldn’t help but note the difference between faith in practice…between the kind of faith that has a broken body lift hands and sing…and resume faith, where the prosperity gospel translates into making money as a television preacher by speaking words of hate and judgment in the name of God.

When there is a disaster both kinds of faith are present.

I saw the same after Hurricane Katrina or the Tsunami – so many people living their values by giving of themselves and some others indulging in public displays of ig’nance so poorly timed and lacking in compassion or decency that they literally took my breathe away.

The Haitian people are strong…they have endured despite oppression, tyranny, poverty and corruption.

And many Haitians are people of faith…some of that was captured in the segment that aired this morning, which showed Haitians using their faith to soothe and comfort as they sat surrounded by devastation and want.

Voices blending and bodies swaying, faces marked with blood and covered in dust, arms raised high with palms facing up.

Faithful and empowered through it…

…rather than vengeful and seeking power with it.

I stand in awe of the first.

As for the other…well, God don’t like ugly.

Crossposted from the Angry Black Bitch.

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Thomas Who?

Forget about all that hedonistic athiest bullshit those librul educators try to cram down your throat about the Constitution.

The document has largely been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and that attribution is a LIE! Jefferson had nothing to do with the writing of the Constitution other than to provide the hand, ink, and paper. You will find out who REALLY wrote the Constitution by listening to Rex Rammell, who also informs us of an important prophecy regarding the Constitution.

You’ll never guess who is going to save us. I’ll give you a hint, though; vote Romney in 2012. It’s PREORDAINED that you do so.

Idaho GOP gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell says saving the U.S. Constitution requires God’s help. Rammell’s thoughts are captured in a nine-minute excerpt from a recent news conference now available on YouTube.

“America would not exist if it wasn’t for the divine hand of providence in not only intervening to win the Revolutionary War but in writing the inspired words of the Constitution,” Rammell says in the video. “To think that we can save the Constitution without God’s help when the government of the United States is corrupt is absurdity.”

Adds Rammell: “We are in America’s second Revolutionary War to save our freedom, which we paid for with blood. We need God’s help and I’m not ashamed to ask for it.”

Rammell says he has invited about 100 Mormon men to a Jan. 19 meeting in Idaho Falls to discuss the “White Horse Prophecy,” which some attribute to Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith. The prophecy, which is not embraced by top Latter-day Saints Church officials, holds that the Constitution “will hang … by a single thread” and LDS leaders will step forward to preserve it.

Late last month, the church issued a statement distancing itself from the prophecy and from Rammell, saying the prophecy has “not been substantiated by historical research.” The statement also said “we hope that the campaign practices of political candidates would not suggest that their candidacy is supported by or connected to the church.”

Rammell is running against incumbent GOP Gov. Butch Otter and Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman in the May 26 primary.

In the video, Rammell defends his decision to meet only with Mormon men, because he wants to speak to those who believe Smith is a prophet. “I didn’t think anyone else would want to come,” he said.

Not true. I, for one, would LOVE to be there. The entertainment value alone would be worth the cost of a trip to Idaho. I think it would be fun to listen to Rammell prattle about how Joseph Smith is the only one to save us all. I’d also like to meet Rex’s wives, as he must have a bunch of them by now. After all, according to his Prophet, you don’t get to the penthouse up above without a whole bunch of wives.

All kidding aside….. here’s another right wing asshat claiming we’re in some kind of a “war.” For their own sakes, I hope that they’re wrong on this one. The United States has long ceased to be the exclusive province of white men, and these dumbasses strutting like roosters around “town hall” meetings with pistols strapped to their asses would find themselves in a great deal of jeopardy if they got that wart they all seem to be screaming for. There are enough people who hate them viscerally to cull them, and enough people indifferent to their fates to ensure that they’d be culled.

Maybe these lovers of the Constitution should start embracing the Constitutional process for changing things, instead of this constant talk about war and guns.

Crossposted at Reconstitution.

Graphic by The Worried Shrimp.

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And Now, I Know

I think I may have complained in here before about the so-called “history” programs on stations like the National Geographic Channel being chock-full of Bible and Jesus “documentaries.” What couching these stories in those terms does is give them the aura of legitimacy that isn’t backed up anywhere by ACTUAL recorded history; articles of faith turned into documentaries are a not-so-subtle attempt to plant Christianity in the minds of those who might come away from seeing one of those “documentaries” on a “history” style channel.

And then today, I saw the light! Reuters has shown me the way. Or, more precisely, the WHY.

Negotiations between the two sides have been primarily held up by a disagreement over the value of Fox’s free-to-air broadcast network. Fox is asking Time Warner Cable for around $1 a subscriber in payment for the retransmission rights to carry its network, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Time Warner Cable executives have balked at paying that much and have claimed that negotiations with broadcast companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc and Local TV which carry local affiliate stations are in the 25 cents to 50 cents a subscriber range.

CBS Corp CEO Les Moonves, who has been a very vocal supporter of getting pay-TV providers to pay cash for the right to carry his broadcast network, has publicly said he expects his company to be paid around 50 cents a subscriber.

Fox said it has for the past nine months attempted to “negotiate in good faith” with Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable operator, which serves some 14 million customers, and said those talks are ongoing.

But there is a “very likely possibility that Time Warner Cable may choose to no longer carry Fox Broadcasting, Fox Cable and Fox regional sports programing,” Fox said.

The negotiations do not include Fox’s news channels or National Geographic channel in which it has a 50 percent stake.

Well how ’bout that? Old Rupert’s gnarled hand is in NatGeo. All of a sudden, all those Bible and Jesus programs on that channel make perfect sense to me.

He hasn’t figured out a way to include attacks on liberals in NatGeo yet, but I’m sure that given time, he will. And another channel just got struck off the list of those I watch semi-regularly.

Crossposted at Reconstitution.

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Sometimes a moment changes a lifetime

When a couple commits to marriage, their lives reorient themselves. Two separate individuals who are accustomed to personal independence and successful careers now readjust their thinking and their lifestyle to make room for another. Their marriage creates an alliance, a partnership — their lives mutual, no longer single.

My Christian tradition doesn’t have a religious ceremony to mark a couple’s wedding engagement, only a marriage commitment service. So when I was invited to be a guest a Hindu engagement ceremony, I was especially interested to witness it. It was short, perhaps only ten to fifteen minutes long. The Brahmin conducted the ceremony, chanting or singing most of it, and it was not in English.

The couple mounted a dais or platform and sat in the chairs of honor before the gathered guests and relatives. The Brahmin sat on the floor of the platform next to their chairs. The parents of each of the couples brought presents to the platform and blessed the man and woman. The parent couples also blessed one another. One of the presents, a coconut, will be brought to the wedding, scheduled for Spring 2010, and will be part of the ceremonies then, linking this event to the wedding to come.

The assembly sat at our round banquet tables during this little ceremony. Unlike the religious services I generally attend, this one wasn’t conducted in front of a silent assembly. Many chatted quietly with their neighbors and took photos of the proceedings. At the end of the short service, the D.J. presented the couple to us, and we clapped our approval.

Thirty important seconds of the service are in the video just below. The Brahmin ties an identical string bracelet on the wrist of the man and the woman. They are to wear that bracelet as a sign of their commitment; they must not take it off. It will be their constant companion until the fibers fail and the bracelet falls off on its own. You will hear the Brahmin’s chanting in this short clip and you’ll hear the murmur of the guests’ quiet visiting. I believe that as the woman returns her wrist to her lap that I can see for an instant the realization of the solemnity of the moment settle upon the woman, a response to the enormity of the step to which they have just committed.

The additional beauty of a commitment ceremony like this is that it calls us all to revisit our own life commitment moment. This news report may not be earth shaking, but the moment it considers is life-changing — in every culture.

I gratefully acknowledge the permission of the couple to allow me to share the images of their engagement service here.

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paradox or hypocrisy?

my mom is my partner in crime. i wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her curiosity- and her admirable ability to stomach listening to hate media and christian media. i guess that i am perplexed at the christian right’s incredulity that more and more americans are turning away from their religion. i mean, despite their best efforts, folks are not sheeple to be fleeced. that’s reserved for special morons on the right- those twenty percenters who have difficulty spelling, i imagine.

anyhoo, many right wing christian types have argued that because the founders were largely christian or deist- the intent that america is a christian nation founded on christian principles is there. therefore, we should return to christianity to unite us in the common good through morals and ethics. except that argument falls very, very flat. the constitution may have been created by men who believed that there is a god- but they specifically, and deliberately stated that there will be no state religion. folks can worship as they please- but no one religion will dominate the other at the federal level. period. you can google it- it’s there.

and on the hypocritical end- well, let’s suffice to say- with all of the ‘family values’ scandals and the pious christian leaders succumbing to just about every deadly sin there is- and the fact that they assisted the politicians in ruining this once great country for worldly gain- that they are lacking quite a bit in the moral authority realm.

i guess that the biggest puzzle for me to try and piece together- is how they present christianity versus what they really stand for. i am going to guess that’s why folks are leaving in droves. the christian right alleges to stand for the right to life of all- because your life belongs to god and your body is his temple- and you need to keep it pure and clean for him. you don’t have the right to euthanasia or suicide- because your body isn’t yours to begin with. god will decide when you live or die. uh huh. jesus- and god- are love. they love you despite you being a sinner or a heathen- and flowers bloom and birds sing, yah, yah, yah. how then to explain the christian stance on 1) capital punishment and 2) torture.

so, let’s see- god is love but he sanctions the torture of other people at the hand of the folks who won. mmmmm…. which chapter and verse in the bible sanctions torture? i’ve read it through twice but i may have missed something. i do, however, distinctly remember something about ‘vengeance is mine, saith the lord.’ but it may be different now- i have a king james version bible. and please cue me in as to where god says- or jesus- that it’s ok to kill someone based on a crime they committed.

i am an admitted ‘heathen’- athiest, i suppose to those who must label. i oppose the death penalty and torture. i also would not personally have an abortion but i am completely in favor of contraception. i also support euthanasia- under restrictions and suicide- because it’s a personal choice. now, that’s not to say i advocate either- but each human being is autonomous. they have the right to decide their own fate. they do not have the right to torture and kill other human beings- or other beings- wantonly and at their whim.

i also have a real problem with christians blaming victims for man made disasters. for example, the christian right blaming the victims of hurricane katrina for the army corps of engineer’s failure to make the levees safe. their ’sins’ did not bring the wrath of god down upon them- climate change did. and the levees breaking was most decidedly not the fault of gay folks. get real.

i have a feeling that many run as far away as they can from christianity these days because these folks come off like a band of thugs- forcing their way of life on others and ganging up on minority groups- like gay folks, immigrants, non wasps, etc. they behave like the crazy relative that folks don’t invite to family holiday dinners. and it’s unfortunate because i really believe in the constitutional right for folks to worship as they please- but these folks are turning the houses of worship into extremist group havens where they are tax exempt- and can plot their course with impunity.

the ’say one thing and do another’ philosophy is what is driving thinking folks away from religion- especially christianity. just an fyi. my fervent hope is that religion extincts itself- and i hope i am around to see it happen.

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Undermining The First Amendment By Creeping Christian Prostelyzation

The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It is generally interpreted and generally agreed that the Establishment Clause in the first amendment establishes freedom of religion and also establishes that there shall be no state religion. This interpretation has stood the test of time and in fact, been upheld by the United States Supreme Court.

It seems, though, that certain segments of the American public, and certain officials (both government and military) are either not aware of this component of the Bill of Rights, or deliberately choose to ignore it. We have seen examples of this in civil life as government officials, who are first and foremost politicians always pandering to what ever special interests get them elected, enact various rules, policies and laws to intermix matters of religion in to state governance.  This country was founded by people escaping religious persecution and domination, so that its citizens could each, by his own free choice, determine what, if any religious practice he or she would subscribe to.

A great segment of our society seems to have either never learned this lesson of our history, or simply choose to ignore it in their misguided belief that their religion commands them and all other men and women to conform to their one way of life and religion.  They do not understand that no religion that forces its will, or what it believes is its God’s will on the entire human race is something that is sacred, justified or a moral imperative, but rather an unjustified, morally repugnant imposition of their personal will on another human being.  No human being has the right to do that, whether in their God’s name or any other name.

Something that the last eight years should have taught us, and something we may be falling prey to as we move forward in to a new era,  is that the active prostelyzing by any religious group delivered via the offices or channels of government is a recipe for disaster.  Ironically the “War on Terror” is a religious war, started and fomented by religious fundamentalists who would impose their beliefs, their will, upon the rest of the world, believing only in utter conformance to their particular religious and social values.  This is what we have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2003.  Yet our government officials, motivated by their personal desires to retain political power and office and subsequently our military officials, who take their lead or their orders from the politicians, have destroyed our credibility as the world paragon of religious and political freedom.

As told by Jason Leopold at The Public Record in his recent story titled “Military Entangled In ‘Extreme Missionary’ Christian Reality Television Show” our elected, and appointed government and military officials have permitted, in fact seemingly encourage, fundamentalist religious groups to prostelyze their particular religious values to citizens of another country that we occupy.  Does it not occur to any of our government officials that by our forcing our own religious and moral values upon Afghanis we are doing the same thing as the Taliban.  We are making the imposition of our will on other people, whether invited by those people or not, just as Al Qaeda tries to impose their values on the rest of human kind.  How incredibly stupid and short sighted it that?

In his article, Leopold relates how fundamentalist religious groups have succeeded in “embedding” themselves in to military units on station in the war zone:

The popular reality series, “Travel the Road,” aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and featured Will Decker and Tim Scott, two so-called “extreme” missionaries who travel the globe to “preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth and encourage the church to be active in the Great Commission.”

The other cable program green-lit by the Pentagon is “God’s Soldier,” which aired in September on the Military Channel, and was filmed at Forward Operating Base McHenry in Hawijah, Iraq. It features an Army chaplain openly promoting fundamentalist Christianity to active-duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq in violation of the U.S. Constitution…

Part of the second season of “Travel the Road” was filmed on location in Afghanistan and aired in April 2006, where Decker and Scott were embedded with the Army, and shows numerous scenes of the men accompanying U.S. Army soldiers on patrol.  The missionaries are also filmed evangelizing the local Afghans by distributing New Testaments to them in their native Darri language.

In one scene, an Army Chaplain named Capt. Brad Hanna of the Oklahoma National Guard, talks about the possibility of a “revival” in Afghanistan and says he frequently speaks to Afghans about converting to Christianity. Hanna was made a full-time support chaplain for the Oklahoma National Guard after he returned from Afghanistan.

Additionally, Decker and Scott prominently cite SSgt. Sheldon Hoyt, who was stationed in Afghanistan with the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, as playing a hands-on role in helping the missionaries facilitate their proselytizing as opposed to simply being a tour guide of sorts…

Earlier this year, U.S. military personnel launched a major initiative to convert thousands of Iraqi citizens to Christianity also by distributing Bibles and other fundamentalist Christian literature translated into Arabic to Iraqi Muslims…

The distribution of the Bibles and Christian literature came at the same time that U.S. Marines guarding the entrance to the city of Fallujah handed out “witnessing coins” to Sunni Muslims entering the city that read in Arabic on one side: “Where will you spend eternity?” and “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16″ on the other…

“God’s Soldier” was co-produced by Jerusalem Productions, a British production company whose “primary aim is to increase understanding and knowledge of the Christian religion and to promote Christian values, via the broadcast media, to as wide an audience as possible.”

Before “God’s Soldier” aired on Sept. 10, the Discovery Channel, which owns the Military Channel, advertised the program by stating that it would feature several Army Chaplains from a wide variety of denominations discussing their work in the military.

“Follow a group of U.S. Army Chaplains from different faiths on a tour of duty in Iraq as they comfort wounded and dying soldiers, reassure panicked and depressed soldiers, as well debriefing those soldiers that return from their tours of duty,” the marketing literature for “God’s Soldier” said.

Instead, “God’s Soldier,” zeroed in on one chaplain, Capt.. Charles Popov, who appears in the first scene of the program in a godlike pose looking down upon the military base and urging soldier to attend Christian Bible study. [Astute readers will note that the Popov family name is a familiar one in terms of religious fundamentalists and tent meetings. -B.F.]

“Hey this is God,” Chaplain Popov says. “Come to Bible study tonight at 1900. Purpose Driven Life. You only have 25,000 days in your life, and probably half of it’s gone.”

The author of the book, “Purpose Driven Life,” that Popov referenced is Rick Warren, the leader of a fundamentalist mega-church in Southern California. In a recent interview with Fox News pundit Sean Hannity, Warren said, “the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped…. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.”

For the full context of all of this, Leopold’s full article is a must read.  But don’t stop there, in a follow-up story, Leopold reports that this de facto policy of encouraging prostelyzation may continue in the new administration being sworn in on January 21.  In his story titled “Prostelyzing In the Military Likely To Continue Under Obama”, Leopold relates:

But, now that Obama has decided to keep Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defense—and he’s embraced Warren—it is virtually guaranteed that fundamentalist Christianity will continue to permeate throughout the military just as it has during George W. Bush’s eight years in office.

Despite being named in several lawsuits filed against the Pentagon for allowing military chaplains to proselytize to soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the numerous letters he has received  from civil rights organizations and government watchdog groups since he was tapped as Defense Secretary two years ago, letters demanding that he launch investigations into widespread proselytizing, Gates has failed to issue a response of any kind to these groups and has refused to take steps to address the matter. Meanwhile, soldiers continue to have fundamentalist Christianity shoved down their throats.

Of the nearly 11,000 soldiers that have lodged complaints about proselytizing with just one of the various government watchdog groups, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reports that about 96 percent have identified themselves as Christian, however, there are numerous cases in which atheist and Jewish soldiers have said they were subjected to  Christian prayer sessions and proselytizing by chaplains despite their objections.

This is all terrifying to freedom loving, individual Americans, who rightly fear the establishment of any religion as “the state religion”.  Religion has a place in each individual’s life at a time and a place of each individual’s choosing, but it has no place being forced upon anyone.  The recent brouhaha on these pages about Rick Warren performing an invocation at the presidential inaugural maybe be viewed as a bit over reactive by some, and when it comes down to it, I can ignore that small interlude, as I have done so in similar situations for my entire life, but why should it be foisted on me in the first place during an act of state ceremony, and it does make me fear what else religious extremists might want to force upon me, will I, one day be forced to wear a religious insignia on my clothing, have all of my worldly possessions seized, have my friends and family torn away from me, and find myself marching to a gas chamber, all in service to some one’s skewed belief that their God is God and is the only God?

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Historical Hysterics and The Rest Of The Best Of 2008

Kinda pleased to have the Obama presidential win as  the most important thing that happened in the world this past year. With the collapsing economy trying to steal his limelight, his historic election still tops my list of historical hysterics we watched in 2008. I had a good friend “break up” with me, in an e-mail no less, because of my views about McCain and the atrocious way his votes treat the troops who are fighting for what they believe is our freedom. Although I cast my vote for the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney it pleased me to see how the country was so hungry for some kind of change they voted in our first black president. Hopefully he tries to keep his promise of change even if he is surrounding himself with the good ol’ backroom boys of our capitol.

(The new bosses just before they came onstage in Chicago Nov. 4, 2008)

The Who “Wont Get Fooled Again”

The destruction of the American economy by the backroom boys (yes…if there are any women who helped shape the policies that caused this disaster I still call each of them a backroom boy as well.) comes up in second place as the most newsmaking story this year. Thousands lost their homes and jobs this year so the C.E.O.’s could take home billions in bonuses.

The only upside to folks losing their homes, jobs being cut, the collapse and bailouts etc. is they came just before the elections. John McClone and the You Betcha Babe were gaining on the “nigra boy” but his cronies part in the economic doom tainted the vote and even the hardcore racists had to look closer at promised “change”.  (The racism in that statement came from a conversation with my mom who called Obama that all the time. Now she is forced to say “Our President”.)

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq still raged on. March saw the number of troops killed in Iraq reach the 4000 mark and the election news smothered the outrage that I thought would have had the American people marching in the streets demanding the end of this atrocity based on lies and deceit.  During this time the press kept us appeased with the ridiculous crap from the primary trail. President Bushit said all of the things the war machine wanted to hear and so did the candidates. Alien Trucker even posted a Pink song on this blog. The only Pink song I have ever thought listenable. It carries such a message I am going to repost it here and hope Mr. Obama listens to it as well, and considers taking that walk with Pink…or any regular world citizen…every day.

Hurricane Gustav visited the Gulf Coast in September and found many many homes and businesses there still bearing the “blue roof”. You know…the big tarps that were put there after Katrina 3 years ago to keep residents dry while waiting on FEMA or the insurance money to come through so they can be repaired. Funds that were supposed to go there have been diverted many times over and still the destruction has no fix. Even the beautiful Sanger Theater in New Orleans, the site of many a great song played for us, is still un-renovated because the people need housing worse than the entertainment that plays, dance or Government Mule can offer.

(Filmed at the Sanger)

Unemployment and homeless rates rose higher than they have in decades. Businesses and factories around the nation have cut back production or closed completely. Folks have taken to robbing or begging just to get by. More than one have robbed someone or asked to take a shift at the Cumberland Mine just to make a house payment.

The price of crude oil topped $100 a barrel and plummeted down again by mid-December. In the midst of financial hardship Americans paid the highest at the pump in our history and are now being thankful that prices are down again…to higher than they were five years ago.

California’s Proposition 8 won. WON!?!?? I believe it was a huge loss on the civil rights front as it shows that bigotry and prejudice is not a thing of the past. Backed by Big Religion the “moral” right fought civil rights again basing their hatred on Old Testament hatred. IT’S 2008 PEOPLE! Those laws handed down by “GAWD” are ancient and really have no part in today’s law making.

So as we make our way into 2009 and all of the marvels and wonder it brings I am not so sure we have loads to celebrate. I am looking forward to seeing the change the new administration brings. I do see that after a while of beans and rice I may be able to afford some chicken by the end of the year. Not everything is doom and dismay. Sometimes it just seems that way.

These are just a few of the important stories of the year. I really didn’t want to go into speculating how they would influence 2009 so I just stopped here.

I really hope it gets better.

Led Zepplin. “The Song Remains The Same”

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Is the Rick Warren issue really a non-issue?

Now, I am sure that some of my friends will take ‘issue’ with my pov that Warren doing the inaugural invocation isn’t a big deal. To them I would like to say this;

I still love you even if we disagree on this point.

Warren is saying the opening prayer people, that is all. He isn’t part of the cabinet and he won’t be setting policy..so if all this yahoo is doing is saying a friggin prayer..how does that affect the fight for LGBT equality? Obama picked a pro-gay rights man, Joseph Lowery to give the benediction, which is another prayer right? Newsweek has a piece up written by two gay individuals on the subject of Warren and his inaugural prayer. These two writers are on opposite sides of this debate. It’s a good read and it lays out two specific points of view on this brouhaha.

So check it out ok?

My point in this whole mess is that we must choose our battles carefully. Rick the fuckwit Warren isn’t worth our time and energy. No one is ever going to convince him that the LGBT community deserves the same rights as everyone else. Having been put in the position to actually defend my pov over at DCup’s post on this subject, I will say that Warren is less offensive than the vast majority of Theocratic wingnuts. He doesn’t call AIDS God’s revenge on gays and he believes climate change is real and churches have a responsibility to deal with it.

That means we have some common ground with Warren. That means we, the universal we, should find a way to make Warren and his sheep part of the equation on climate change and AIDS. It also means we can take our talking points to him on the subject of gay equality, but do it in a respectful way. If we use the Rush Limbaugh method, we won’t get far…correct?

Obama wants to unite us all around our common beliefs. I think he purposefully picked Warren to show he is reaching out to all sides. Personally, I don’t give a shit why he picked him because giving the opening prayer in the pomp and circumstance extravaganza that is the Presidential Inauguration doesn’t mean squat in the grand scheme of things. I am not a lover of organized religion..I hate it as a matter of fact. I do pray however and I try to follow Jesus’s teachings on how to be a good human being. To me, that is a no-brainer, doing unto others as you would have others do unto you.

Let me use part of the Newsweek article that I think spells out a lot for me:

Leah, you and others are criticizing the selection of Rick Warren as a betrayal of Barack Obama’s promise to unify the country, but the way you define “unity” is really very exclusionary. The inaugural committee has promised “an inclusive and accessible inauguration that … unites the nation around our shared values and ideals.” You argue Warren should be disqualified under that standard because his gay-marriage opposition is a “value and ideal” you don’t share. But Obama’s point was to unify us around areas of agreement, and here you are focused on disagreement, so where’s the betrayal? For “unifying the nation” to mean anything, there must be “inclusion” for conservatives, including the many millions like Warren who oppose gay marriage. Excluding those with whom we disagree is the antithesis of unifying.

Even if you suspect the whole “unity” thing is really just about politics, the selection of Warren still makes good sense, including for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. It is a stroke of political brilliance to recruit a conservative megapastor in support of a president-elect who is arguably the most pro-gay, pro-choice and progressive in our history. That’s the kind of political dividend you get from focusing on common ground-like Warren’s support for the fight against global warming and AIDS.

Obama is going to piss off the right, the left and the centrist folks many more times before his term comes to an end. Lets not allow Warren’s prayer to divide those of us that believe in the fight for gay rights ok? If we are going to pick our battles wisely…this ain’t one of them that will do us any good in the long or short run. If your someone who doesn’t believe in prayer then you don’t have anything to bitch about period.

It’s a prayer people..it’s not policy

Update…as for the issue of prayer in a public ceremony..aka separation of church and state..I am totally in favor of knocking that shit off asap. Just wanted to clarify that m’dear friends.

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wwjd?

i am going to bet he would have fed the little boy. know why? because jesus was a compassionate being- and christians are not. the cult of christianity has sucked the life out of countless millions for millenia- and yet, because it is so deceptively easy to belong to and because of the abdication of personal responsibility, millions still keep right on believin’ in a being that does not exist. yeah, yeah, people need something to believe in, blah, blah….. you can believe in anything you want- doesn’t make it real. know what is real? children are abused and murdered every day in this country alone- in the name of christianity. watch jesus camp- or read about the christian sects in texas who married off their 12 year olds to the pedophile pastors- or read the papers about the priests who molested choir boys- or any of the countless families who have denied their children healthcare in the name of jesus.

but, betmo, these things happen even without the umbrella of christianity. yep. but apparently, this is a christian nation and christianity has been rammed down our secular throats for at least the last 8 years. the christian ‘morality’ has crashed into our political system and our legislature- the white house is attempting to get contraceptives classified as types of abortion. christianity isn’t benign in this country. what started out as a small minority group in ancient palestine has morphed into a billion dollar business industry complete with atms in the lobbies and ‘ez passes’ in the pews- wrapped up in right wing politics. make no mistake- this brand of christianity preys on scared people’s fear of change and hidden proclivities such as racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. and it demands total allegiance and fealty- whether you are 2 years old or not. this brand of christianity is mobilizing militias and ‘armies of god’ because they have declared war on the rest of us.

continue to believe if you choose. just don’t be surprised as events unfold.

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Holier than Thou Wars?

Barack Obama sure has been through the wringer about religion. Big to do’s about if the Reverend Wright had the right to say what he did, or if Wright was wrong, and Obama was wrong to choose Wright? Who has the right to scrutinize anyone’s religious choices? That is supposed to be one of America’s freedoms, right?
(I am having fun with the word play!)

WAPO published this article about Reverend Caldwell “leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched a website yesterday titled “James Dobson Does not Speak for Me”
The site is a jab at Dobson, a stalwart of the religious right, who this week called Obama’s interpretation of the Bible in a 2006 speech, distorted to fit Obama’s own world view, his own confused theology”.
Caldwell said “I think it is a crime and a shame that Senator Obama has had to explain the fact that he is a christian”. “Criticize his politics. Criticize his stance on whatever, but don’t question his faith. Never in the history of American politics has someone said that he is a Christian, and someone came back to say “No you’re not.”

Rev. Caldwell officiated @ Jenna Bush’s wedding.

http://jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com/

The Caldwell web site has collected over 10,000 signatures already, people joining with Rev. Caldwell, in proclaiming
*James Dobson doesn’t speak for me.*

He doesn’t speak for me when he uses religion as a wedge to divide;

He doesn’t speak for me when he speaks as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible;

James Dobson doesn’t speak for me when he uses the beliefs of others as a line of attack;

He doesn’t speak for me when he denigrates his neighbor’s views when they don’t line up with his;

He doesn’t speak for me when he seeks to confine the values of my faith to two or three issues alone;

What does speak for me is David’s psalm celebrating how good and pleasant it is when we come together in unity;

Micah speaks for me in reminding us that the Lord requires us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him;

The prophet Isaiah speaks for me in his call for all to come and reason together and also to seek justice, encourage the oppressed and to defend the cause of the vulnerable;

The book of Nehemiah speaks for me in its example to work with our neighbors, not against them, to restore what was broken in our communities;

The book of Matthew speaks for me in saying to bless those that curse you and pray for those who persecute you;

The words of the apostle Paul speak for me in saying that words spoken and deeds done without love amount to nothing.

The apostle John speaks for me in reminding us of Jesus’ command to love one another. The world will know His disciples by that love.

These words speak for me. But when James Dobson attacks Barack Obama, James Dobson doesn’t speak for me.”

Right on Reverend Caldwell! Tell it Brother!

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there are many, many curse words forming on my lips now

this is why i hold such contempt for christianity. this is why i speak out so disdainfully about organized religions. religions are used as control mechanisms for the ‘faithful’ sheeple. i have read proof that the heads of these organizations hold seminars in marketing and role playing- and how to target certain types of people- just like corporations. i have no patience for people who have to cling to an outdated, superstitious set of beliefs that make absolutely no sense in a scientific realm. if you are a christian, well, i will refrain from saying anything because my mom told me not to say anything at all if i can’t say something nice. just do a little research into where your money goes and for what- because those ‘missions’ you give to- probably fund bullshit like this- apparently, my tax dollars do.

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5 randoms from my google reader

the buying of the president 2008: stealth campaigns

where business meets religion: holy drinking water

what will history say about today’s america?

monsanto files patent for pig- patenting live genetic material

ranks of senior citizens drug trafficking skyrockets

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